Reviews

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

nellerific's review against another edition

2.5

Honestly, this should have been a DNF but choices were made and regrets were had. The plot and world building were kind of interesting, and for the first time in a while I have nothing to complain about in regards to love triangles or teenagers doing stupid things in the name of "love". Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to endear me to this book. What really got me was how juvenile the writing felt, even for a YA book. Basic facts were stated repeatedly, like the reader was expected to not remember or not grasp things that were revealed a chapter, or sometimes paragraphs before. It made most of the twist and plot reveals obvious well beforehand and the whole thing felt rather anticlimactic. The pacing was also really weird and multiple times I thought I'd skipped something because of the unusual time jumps.

I don't usually leave such bad reviews, but I think I'm more disappointed about not liking the book than I thought I would be. There were aspects of it that had such potential that fell so flat, even half way through the book. Ah well... the things we do in the hopes of interesting queer relationships, I guess. 

mayamaynot's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

sophiejorgenson's review

4.0

Honestly at the beginning it’s confusing as fuck, wayyyyy too many characters are introduced too quickly but the last like 100-150 pages AMAZING honestly wasn’t expecting it but now I’m on to read the second book asap

tbr_books's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I swear everything this woman writes is a peace of art.
It’s very hard to find a book with good writing, interesting characters and plot full of twists, but this has all of it. And as a plus, the vibes are there and they are giving.

tessofthetales's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

rinniebeanie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Goddamn it, c.s. pacat has done it again. //Positive



No but for real, capri is one of my favorite series ever and so I've finally gotten around to read dark rise. The beginning is a bit slow but it's necessary for the signature pacat world and lore building. The last few chapters fly by like a bullet train, you won't know what hit you. Even being able to infer or guess what will happen will not prepare you for what actually takes place. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, War, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Animal cruelty

rena219's review

4.0

This book was painfully slow and a little boring in the first 60% or so of the book. Felt like so much info dump world building with nothing really interesting happening. The pay off was so, so good though. Really look forward to the rest of the series

reginapizza's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Would have rated this sub 3-stars but once I got to 90% done the book finally got interesting with the plot twist. Probably won’t read book 2 though 

___rei's review

5.0

Amazing. Totally recommended if you like Fantasy novels. And the cover art: BEAUTIFUL.
I have been reading C.S.Pacat work since the Captive Prince series, and I think she hasn't make anything but improve with each novel.
On this book specifically, characters are great, it doesn't matter good or evil, you can appreciate them all.
As always, the final cliffhanger left me like: nononO WAIT, i mean yes, but... (no words to express this)
I can wait to read the next one of this series.

alisaur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I’m not sure if the Dark rises, but my blood pressure certainly did while listening to this audio book.  There are ambiguous, but emotional, back stories, a lot of action all at once, and a re-orienting of the characters’ world views and pain of grappling through that kind of fall out.  There is also goodness recognizing goodness inside another, and tentative hope of finding belonging.  The book then rides the dance floor for the rest of the night doing the (plot) twist.

I found myself mostly tensed and worried, over the characters’ safety.  So I guess I have become attached to the lion who wants to fight on the side of the light. Even the arrogant last of the stewards and the secrets-keeping descendent of lady’s blood